Americans are not imagining the affordability crisis. Real wages have stopped gaining ground, inflation remains embedded in household budgets, and new cost pressures from tariffs and energy instability are making everyday life more expensive. According to New York Times economics reporter Ben Casselman, inflation-adjusted wages have shown no net gain since President Trump returned to office. Price increases over the past few months have erased the real wage gains workers made

Obamacare created several costly federal programs, but the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has become one of its clearest failures. The agency was supposed to reduce healthcare costs and improve quality through new payment models. Instead, it has spent billions of taxpayer dollars while producing little evidence that it has improved care or delivered savings. Congress now has an opportunity to end this wasteful experiment. Rep. Aaron Bean has introduced H.R

Joe Rogan’s discussion of nonprofit hospital abuses pushed a long-running health care problem into the national spotlight: many of America’s largest tax-exempt hospital systems are operating more like corporate conglomerates than charitable institutions. The Center for a Free Economy has been working extensively to expose this problem and advance reforms that bring more accountability, transparency, and competition to the hospital sector. CFE has repeatedly highlighted how la

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is considering S. 2658, the "Medication Affordability and Patent Integrity Act," a bill that supporters claim would improve transparency between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In reality, the legislation would weaken intellectual property protections, encourage more litigation, and burden federal agencies with new paperwork that could slow innovation and dr

President Trump has put a long-running problem in clear terms: foreign governments are using drug pricing policies that leave American patients paying too much of the world’s pharmaceutical research and development bill. Congress now has legislation that would help turn that concern into action. H.R. 4780, the “USTRx Act,” introduced by U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington and other lawmakers, would create a Chief Pharmaceutical Trade Negotiator within the Off

A new report from the Paragon Health Institute finds that 28 states now have more low-income Obamacare exchange enrollees than eligible residents in the income range receiving the program’s most generous subsidies, a striking sign that the program’s enrollment problems remain far from resolved. Paragon estimates that 6.2 million individuals are improperly enrolled in Affordable Care Act exchange plans in 2026. While that figure is slightly below the institute's estimate of 6.

A growing coalition of conservatives is raising alarms about S. 4668, the "Protect College Sports Act," arguing that the legislation would move far beyond establishing rules for college athletics and instead place Washington at the center of the industry. The latest warning came from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who told Politico that the Senate bill faces serious obstacles in the U.S. House. Scalise specifically cited concerns over student-athlete employment status a

A new Health and Human Services study adds a major data point to the Medicaid reform debate: community engagement requirements for able-bodied adults should lift between 1.6 million and 2.9 million people out of poverty. The finding strengthens the case for H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” and its effort to restore work, accountability, and fiscal discipline to welfare programs. The study, released by HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluatio

The Trump administration is taking direct aim at one of Washington's least scrutinized spending pipelines: the federal grant system. Last week, the Office of Management and Budget unveiled a sweeping overhaul of how more than $1 trillion in federal grants and assistance are distributed, reviewed, and monitored. The new rule follows President Trump's Executive Order 14332, "Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking," and represents one of the most significant attempts in deca

America had a corporate flight problem before the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Companies had powerful incentives to move headquarters overseas, shift profits abroad, and escape a tax code that made the United States one of the least competitive places to do business. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changed those incentives. It made America more competitive, helped stop corporate inversions, and delivered stronger revenue than critics predicted. New analysis from the Committee t

New enrollment data strengthen the case for Medicaid and CHIP integrity reforms in H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” New data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) show that 74.9 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP in February 2026, about 3.5 million more than in February 2020, the month before the pandemic. That figure complicates the familiar claim that Congress is gutting Medicaid. The program remains larger than it was before COVID, even after stat

The Trump Accounts app is now live, marking another major step toward the July 4 launch of one of the most significant family wealth-building reforms in decades. The Treasury Department announced this week that the app is available in major app stores and will serve as the main public interface for Trump Accounts as families prepare to enroll. As Daily Wire reported, the app is designed to help families learn about the accounts, follow the rollout, and use financial literacy

Large nonprofit hospital systems are drawing the scrutiny they have long avoided. The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, led by Chairman Jason Smith, is continuing its oversight of hospital affordability, tax-exempt hospital networks, and the federal policies that have allowed major systems to expand while families face higher medical bills. The committee’s work is overdue. Hospital spending has become one of the largest cost pressures in American health care, and many of t

Thomas Massie and his supporters have long presented him as one of Congress’s leading libertarian voices. That reputation deserves scrutiny after his vote against H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which delivered the Working Families Tax Cuts, major welfare reforms, and $1.3 trillion in net spending cuts over the first decade. Massie’s defenders can respect his rhetoric on spending restraint. They cannot ignore the record. When Congress had a real opportunity to preve

Colleges are facing two pressures at once: fewer freshmen and less federal loan money to prop up tuition. Fertility peaked in 2007, and the post-2007 baby bust is now starting to reach college campuses. At the same time, H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” capped graduate student loans and is already pushing universities to cut prices. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board highlighted the shift in a new op-ed on MBA programs cutting tuition after Congress limited fede

Washington does not need another expensive housing program to see why buyers are struggling. Millions of homes already exist, but too many are being kept off the market by a tax code that has not kept up with reality. New data from the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) confirms what the Center for a Free Economy has been warning for months. The federal capital gains exclusion for primary home sales is outdated, unindexed, and increasingly out of step with home prices. Th

CFE has been warning CMS and Congress that Medicaid financing schemes are draining taxpayers, weakening program integrity, and turning a safety-net program into a payment machine for states and politically favored providers. CMS is now moving in the right direction. A new CMS proposed rule would strengthen oversight of Medicaid state directed payments, align more payments with Medicare standards, and bring more transparency to payment arrangements that have grown far beyond t

The Center for a Free Economy submits these comments in support of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s interim final order concluding that federal law preempts the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act. The OCC is right to act. Illinois is attempting to impose a state-level price control on the national payments system by prohibiting national banks and federal savings associations from charging or receiving payment card fees on the tax and gratuity portions of

American families are already paying more for groceries, gas, housing, insurance, and everyday goods. The latest inflation report shows the problem is not over, and Washington should stop pretending cheaper money will solve a price problem caused by too much money. Inflation Is Moving the Wrong Way Again CNBC reported that overall inflation rose 0.6 percent in April and 3.8 percent over the last 12 months, the highest annual inflation reading since May 2023. Core prices, whic

Americans keep hearing that Washington is cutting Medicaid. Paragon Health Institute looked at the actual numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the claim does not hold up. CBO’s new presentation on federal health subsidies shows federal Medicaid spending rising every year. Medicaid is projected to grow from $708 billion in 2026 to $981 billion in 2036, a 39 percent increase. CBO also projects federal Medicaid spending will total $8.4 trillion from 2026 throu